


Fade to Black

by allofspace



Series: Fade to Black [6]
Category: Villains Series - V. E. Schwab
Genre: Alternate Ending, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, M/M, Self Loathing, alternate ending to vengeful, neither of these things really come up.. just thought i'd mention it lol, victor is ace and eli is a sociopath... what a duo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26038198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allofspace/pseuds/allofspace
Summary: Alternate ending to Vengeful based on Fade to Black by the Born Ruffians. "She’s ruining him. Marcella is breaking him down. His hands disintegrate and he slowly regenerates, over and over just like they had in real life. But this time he’s not fast enough. It hurts and he screams and then he’s dead."
Relationships: Eli Cardale | Eli Ever/Victor Vale
Series: Fade to Black [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1190623
Comments: 8
Kudos: 15





	Fade to Black

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Curious_Pizza](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curious_Pizza/gifts).



> This is part of an ongoing series of short fics set in different universes, all inspired by a playlist of songs that made me think of Eli/Victor. I am open to continuing some or all of them! Let me know which ones you enjoy!
> 
> Thank you Curious_Pizza, I know this isn't the 2nd chapter you were looking for, but your comments inspired me and got me thinking about Eli/Victor again and I finished up this little one I had lying around!

“So I sat with my head in my hands and they started to rust. And my legs as I try to stand, got turned into dust.”  
“If you talk about a dream enough it might come true.”  
“I’m not getting bored, I’m just impatient. Watching your emotional emulation.”

Eli is dreaming, he knows this. Though it’s more of a nightmare really. He can’t remember having dreams since becoming an EO, and barely remembers having any before that. But it’s always the same one now.

She’s ruining him. Marcella is breaking him down. His hands disintegrate and he slowly regenerates, over and over just like they had in real life. But this time he’s not fast enough. It hurts and he screams and then he’s dead. 

Eli wakes up screaming as he remembers the excruciating pain. Sure, he always heals, but he never forgets the pain. The memory of the pain never fades. And night after night he dreams about being destroyed, feeling every part of himself and his being turn to dust. And he’s forced to relive the pain, even worse than what Victor’s powers have ever done to him. 

There’s a hand on his shoulder. It’s still dark out, must still be the middle of the night. The tight grip loosens and Victor begins rubbing soothing circles into Eli’s arm with his thumb. Eli takes a deep breath and falls back asleep. Then, he dreams of Victor, as is becoming routine now too. 

It always starts with Eli lost, searching for something, though he doesn’t know exactly what. Then he finds Victor, or Victor finds him. And the black skies turn a lighter grey, a sliver of sunlight able to get through. And they never say anything, they just stand there and sometimes look at each other, and sometimes watch their surroundings together, but always in silence. And Eli thinks for a dream, it’s pretty tame, it could be better, but it’s still better than the alternative. 

When Eli wakes again, Victor is gone. For a moment he panics. Maybe it was all a dream, waking up in the middle of the night and the soothing hand included. But the panic eases as he smells coffee and as he hears footsteps and clanging in the kitchen. The dreams fade from his mind, and real life sticks, as sunlight peaks through the blackout curtains that aren’t fully closed. It’s no less terrifying, but at least it’s solid, tangible. 

Eli looks down at the hand that he once saw disintegrate before his eyes. A reminder of his mortality, the only reminder he’d ever had since becoming an EO.

Victor comes back into the room, black t-shirt clinging to his lanky frame. He looks tired; looks worse than Eli feels, which says a lot, and Eli feels a pang in his chest. He did this to Victor. Made him become so desperate that he let Eli kill him. And he didn’t come back whole. Eli doesn’t think anyone can. Though he hasn’t said as much to Victor or Sydney or Mitch as they all hold out hope that she can hone her power and be able to bring people back properly. Eli doesn’t think the universe would let that happen. That’s why EOs exist. they already had to come back from the dead once. They’re not meant to come back again. 

“Stop that,” Victor says. He hands Eli a hot mug of coffee, black with sugar. 

“Stop what?” Eli asks, his voice groggy. 

“Looking at me like you’re worried,” Victor says, setting down his own mug and pulling out his syringe kit. 

“I’m not worried,” Eli says with a scoff. Victor raises an eyebrow and shoots himself up with more of the blue liquid they’re almost out of. “I think you’re an idiot.”

“Well good, that’s much better,” Victor says as he rolls his eyes. 

“You wouldn’t be in this situation if you hadn’t gotten yourself killed,” Eli says innocently. He tries to hide the guilt. Tries to make it sound like a joke, but Victor sees through him. He always has. 

Victor comes and sits on the edge of the bed after carefully putting away the syringe. “I’m not going to tell you it wasn’t your fault. You did indeed murder me. But that was actually my plan. And maybe I am an idiot for not coming up with a better one. Besides, you were… different.”

Eli watched him closely. He hated that Victor could see through him when no one else could, but Victor himself remained an enigma to everyone, always. And Eli _is_ different now. He was in a haze for so long. It was really thanks to Marcella for getting him out of it. Being on the brink of death for the first time in so, so long. It woke him up. 

Eli knows Victor doesn’t like talking about this. Some part of Victor wants to know what exactly changed for Eli, but maybe he’s too afraid to ask, or maybe he just doesn’t need to. Sometimes Eli wants to tell him. They talk about a lot of other things, just not Eli’s previous psychopathic tendencies. Even Sydney was able to get over it eventually, not that gaining her trust was easy by any means. Eli thinks he just looked pathetic enough that Sydney knew there was no way he could be faking it. 

He’d been wandering aimlessly for months after defeating Marcella and narrowly escaping death by torture at the hands of an insane “doctor”. Victor had been like a mirage then. A vision from a dream, except the hand that grabbed his shoulder was solid and real. 

And Eli can’t exactly believe where he is now. Which is maybe where he was destined to end up. Sharing an apartment, a bed, with Victor. Once best friend, once mortal enemy, and now… whatever they were. Playing house under this veil of domesticity. Eli would think it was all fake if he wasn’t enjoying it so damn much. Eli used to pride himself on not wanting anything but power. He thought it was all he needed, yet even at his most powerful, he felt nothing. 

But what he felt when Victor woke him from a nightmare, or handed him the crossword from the newspaper, or brought him coffee in bed… it was a feeling nothing else could give him. Eli could see now it had been there in university. Being around each other so much, the feeling had been a spark in Eli, but he hadn’t seen it for what it was. Or didn’t let himself see it perhaps. He’d let the excitement and prospect of power get the better of him and their worlds had gone spiralling out of control. 

Victor puts a hand on Eli’s cheek now, breaking him from his thoughts. “You’re sinking too far in your head again, I can see it,” he says. 

He stares into Eli’s eyes, as if inspecting his thoughts through them. Eli thinks he should be defensive about that, but he wants Victor to know everything, he just doesn’t want to have to tell him everything. He wishes he could just read it there. Maybe Victor has read most of it on his face anyway. How sorry he is, mostly. And a lot of other things. 

Eli closes his eyes and presses his cheek against Victor’s hand. He thinks “I love you” and wishes Victor could read his mind. Because Eli can’t say those words, doesn’t think it’s fair to either of them. But he thinks they both know anyway. And Eli thinks Victor is there too, or somewhere in the area. He opens his eyes again, staring into Victor’s. Trying to read him like he reads Eli, but Eli still doesn’t know how. Like the blacked out lines of one of Victor’s books. 

He kisses the palm of Victor’s hand. Victor leans down, kisses Eli softly on the lips. Eli’s heart feels like it’s going to explode as Victor pulls away. “Get dressed. We have work to do,” he says. 

Eli sighs and falls back against the headboard. He takes a sip of his coffee. It’s a little too hot, but it feels good. Mornings are hard, waking up from those nightmares, shaking off the memories like dust. But the reality that sets in once he’s awake is better than he ever had a right to hope for. Sometimes he thinks the only way he knows it’s not a dream is because he couldn’t have even imagined a life like this, a life this good. It would have never occurred to him.


End file.
